Unfortunately for Caspian, ralphing in the toilet didn’t make him feel any better than he had a few minutes ago. He found himself laying on his back on the tiled, bathroom floor with his knees in the air and both arms crossed over his face to block out the light. He wished his friends hadn’t made him take those last two shots when they had been playing their game. There had been no reason for him to get this wasted when he’d only needed to appear hungover enough to make his trip to the club believable. Jay and Miles had just forced him to drink in excess for their own amusement.

“I’m gonna kill them for this,” he mumbled to himself then groaned as his stomach lurched again, and he scrambled upright to get to the toilet before he vomited again. The only good thing was that he’d made it back to his bedroom before his body had revolted against the liquor. At least he could be a mess in solitude.

When his stomach calmed down enough for him to risk venturing away from the bathroom, he changed out of his clothes and crawled into bed, pulling the duvet all the way over his head. He had a feeling it was going to be a long night, but on the bright side, he no longer had to worry about what was going on with Iris. When she had been at the penitentiary, he’d been almost constantly worried about what the soldiers had been doing to her; and when she had been at the hospital, he’d worried about how stable she was and whether the soldiers would come by to take her back to her cell. Now that she was in Miles’ care, he could finally relax, knowing that she was safe from the people who wanted her executed.

Doing his best to focus on that rather than the dizziness and nausea that he’d brought upon himself by overindulging, he eventually managed to drift off into a light and moderately interrupted sleep.

Meanwhile at the Kinders’ house, Miles breathed a sigh of relief that his tone deaf offer hadn’t been poorly received by Iris. “I don’t mind it, really,” he insisted with a shrug. “I can sleep anywhere, but if you’re sure you’d rather be on the sofa then I won’t try to stop you.” Technically, insisting that he would sleep on the couch would have been the more gentlemanly thing to do, but unlike Caspian, he had never been the gentlemanly type. He could show compassion when he needed to, but he didn’t stick to rules and traditions when he didn’t see a reason to do so.

With a nod at her request, he stepped over to pick up the empty water glass and took it into the bathroom to refill from the faucet. The water supply for the entire manor was purified, so even the stuff that came from the sink would taste as good as the source in the kitchen. Bringing the full cup back for her, he handed it off and then grabbed a spare blanket from the closet. It was a particularly fluffy black one that would hopefully be more than enough to keep a person warm overnight.

While he was inside the closet, he also changed into a set of silk pajamas to wear to bed. Usually, he preferred to sleep au naturel, but that would have been completely inappropriate with a platonic female guest staying over, so he tolerated the clothes this time. Once he was dressed again, he stepped back into the bedroom.

“Here you go,” he said as he tossed the blanket on the sofa next to her. “Hope you sleep well, Iris. Let me know if you need anything else, okay?” Ambling over to the edge of the room, he turned out the overhead lights and climbed into his bed to get some rest, doing his best not to think about the fact that he had an attractive woman in the room with him. “Goodnight,” he mumbled to her, nestling comfortably in the soft sheets. Despite his offer to do more for her if she needed anything, it didn’t take long before he passed out, weary from the alcohol that was still in his system.

Iris was glad it didn’t become awkward, it seemed from both ends it was completely innocent and she was just happy she didn’t have to worry about the next day when she was behind bars. There was no fear of waking up to find out today would be the day she’d be killed, of course she had her moments where she simply did not care about her death but a part of her now was fighting it back. Only a little part of her, which in truth did make her worry because she knew she had to be strong and not let herself get the better of her.

“Thank you.” Taking the glass of water from Miles she took a few sips feeling better by the minute from the alcohol she had ingested earlier, though her stomach did squirm she forced herself to ignore it because there was no way she was letting herself vomit in his room. Watching as he placed the blanket down, she couldn’t help but smile, excitement flowed through her at how soft it looked, and she couldn’t wait to wrap it around her. Touching it with her fingers she could feel the soft fabric and she knew it would be more than enough for her tonight, she would be comfortable and hopefully she could get some sleep.

“Goodnight Miles.” It clearly hadn’t taken long for him to fall asleep and it felt strange being in his room shrouded in darkness, shaking her head she finished off the glass of water placing it down as she settled herself on the sofa pulling the much anticipated blanket over her form. Closing her eyes Iris tried to rest, she was comfortable and free, but sleep didn’t come easy because she was worried about the nightmares that often haunted her.

--

Back in the hospital Harry felt like everything was going crazy, she had escaped. The prisoner had escaped from the hospital and he felt responsible. Had he locked the door? No, of course he did, he would never have left it unlocked, but how? How had the girl escaped when she barely looked like she could stand, unless it had all been a rouse. Dragging fingers through his hair he was stood in the empty room; he should never have left her unguarded until the replacement had arrived. The report had already been filled through security, Curry was going to slaughter him and who knows what the King would do when he found out about this.

“How could you let her escape!?”

“Oh, Matthew sod off, it wasn’t intentional and by the sounds of it someone had helped her escape.” Harry scoffed as he heard Matthews voice already regretting informing the warden of the escape. Of course, they had told Matthew about this, he knew about everything especially when it came to his prisoners that he interrogated. “This never would have happened had you not nearly killed her; she’d still be in a cell in top security.”

“Don’t blame me for this screw up, you were on duty to guard the prisoner and now they have gone. What if that girl leaks about the way we interrogate huh? Those kinds of secrets can’t get out.” Matthew hissed as he paced around the room as if it would help him figure out what had happened.

The last thing Jacob had expected was to be spending his night hunting down a missing hospital patient. While he’d been on his way to speak with King Atlas about the weakened security point in the garage, he had bumped into Harry, who had immediately blanched upon seeing him. Right away, he had realized that something was wrong, since he’d never seen the other guard abandon his post before. However, he’d had a long day and had been too tired to question why Harry would have left Iris alone at the hospital. Instead, he’d reprimanded him for his negligence and ordered him to go back.

That was when Harry had told him that someone had impersonated him over the phone and told him that he would be taking over his shift.

With enough expletives to make a sailor blush, Jacob commanded Harry to return to the hospital while he called the police to inform them of the situation. He’d hoped that the law enforcement officers would be able to respond quickly enough to catch the perpetrators before they got away. Unfortunately, when he got through to dispatch, the woman on the other end of the line informed him that a nurse at the hospital had already called a few minutes ago and that police were already on the scene. The criminals, however, had escaped.

He had hung up the phone in a rage and headed to his car, driving down to the hospital personally to find out if he could do any better identifying the culprits than the officers had. He was going to have to tell the king that their prisoner was gone, and he wanted to have at least some good news to offer when he delivered the worst of it. Having a solid lead to follow to get her back would be a good start.

With that objective in mind, he made his way into the building and beelined for the security personnel’s office, making phone calls along the way for the soldiers to keep an eye out for suspicious people and notices for stolen vehicles. It hadn’t been long since Iris had disappeared, so she and the others couldn’t have gone far. Assuming their plan was to take her out of the capital, the military needed to cut them off before they could get to the border.

In the meantime, he reviewed the security footage at the hospital. Due to patient privacy policies, there weren’t very many cameras on the inside of the building, but there was some suspicious activity that had been captured on two of them in the hallways on the first and third floor as well as one in the parking lot.

“As you can see, we don’t have a lot to go off,” the on-duty security guard explained with a perplexed sigh as they looked over the recordings that had caught Iris and the three people who had helped her escape. “The only things we’ve determined are that they’re all male and seemed to know enough about the way this hospital works to get in and out without raising suspicion. Do you think they’re from the capital?”

“Possibly,” Jacob replied noncommittally, leaning closer to the computer screen and narrowing his eyes as he studied the repeating footage of the group slipping out of room 311 with Iris still in her mobile bed. His bent was to assume more members of the rebellion had gotten inside the city to rescue her, but he wasn’t ruling anything out just yet. “I’d like some time to review this alone,” he added to the hospital guard. “Check in with the police officers, will you? Tell me if they’ve found anything else worth noting.”

“Sure thing,” the guard nodded, stepping out of the office.

Jacob glanced at his back on his way out and then returned to looking through every bit of footage the hospital had caught of the three men once he was alone. Even if it took him all night, he was determined to find something that would help him narrow down who could have taken Now-Fleuret and where they could have gone.

It was safe to say Matthew was fuming at the fact the prisoner had escaped, never in his life had anyone evaded the military or the penitentiary for that matter not until now and this was a prisoner he didn’t want escaping. This prisoner was the daughter of the rebel leader, with the interrogation methods they had used she could take that back and create some sort of hope for the rebels again. It would show them that they had a weakness and word could not spread of her escape, he knew this would be kept quiet because if word got out that another rebel had escaped the people would assume they were incompetent.

“Why did you even leave your post, you had to be here when I arrived but not when people wanted to break the girl out.” Muttering under his breath to no one in particular, it was just clear he was frustrated and annoyed over the escape. As the soldiers looked over the room the only thing, they could find was her screwed up medical files scattered across the floor which didn’t give them any sort of insight on how she had escaped.

“I want her found, now.”

“I think we all want the girl found now.” Harry rolled his eyes as he folded his arms looking around the empty room, there was no leads here and he could only hope Jacob was making progress on his end reviewing the tapes. Problem was the whole confidentiality side that cameras weren’t as frequent there unlike the prison where they could have eyes on the prisoners twenty-four seven. Picking up his phone he flicked through updates to see if there was anything on the escaped prisoner, so far there was nothing, but he had hope in their military and that the culprits would be apprehended.

“If that girl had never left the prison, we wouldn’t be in this mess now.” Matthew began to grumble to himself as he picked up the files that were on the floor looking through them not caring what personal information it had on her, the girl was meant to be the Capitals property awaiting conviction of her crimes.

“She’d be dead if she stayed in the prison.”

“Would it have mattered? That was no doubt her fate anyway. I don’t believe his Majesty would have allowed her to live after committing the act of treason and her heritage. Don’t you understand the impact of this?” Matthew sighed heavily shaking his head, “IF she makes it to the border and back to the districts it gives those filthy Scourge another reason to rebel, it adds to their hope of this war against the Capital. The girl was the daughter of the rebel leader which we killed.” Glancing at the papers and the descriptions of her conditions and what they had given to treat her, shaking his head he threw the file to the side as he moved to the door. “Let me know if she is found, I want her back in the Prison the minute they find her.”

For a while, Jacob watched and rewatched footage of the three men in the halls of the hospital. The cameras had picked them up on the first floor after they had put on sets of stolen scrubs, surgical masks, and hair coverings to disguise themselves from the nurses they passed by. He propped his elbow on the desk and rested his chin in his hand, chewing idly on the inside of his lip as he replayed the clip again. There was nothing glaringly obvious about them that he could use to identify who they were, but he wasn’t going to give up that easily. No criminals were perfect. He just needed to keep looking long enough to spot the flaw in their plan.

Moving back to the video of the men when they were on the third floor of the building, he watched closely as they wheeled the bed out of Iris’s room and then glanced at his watch. It was getting late into the night, and he was getting tired. Knowing that his attentiveness was most likely becoming compromised by exhaustion, he debated whether he should call it quits until the morning to get a cup of black coffee to stay up longer. It would have been easier to do the former, but he couldn’t face King Atlas without more information.

Coffee, it is, he thought, pushing his chair back to get up. However, just before he rose to his feet, he froze, noticing something in the footage that he hadn’t caught before. Bemused, he rolled the tape back a few seconds and squinted as he played the bit again. There it was; the same subtle detail. It hadn’t been his imagination. One of the rescuers had an uneven gait when he walked, as if he was sporting a limp.

“Son of a bitch,” Jacob breathed, scrambling to find the file that contained the clip from the exterior camera in the parking lot. All this time, he’d been looking for clues that could tell him if the group had made a mistake. He’d assumed they were members of the rebellion who had come in from beyond the capital, since no one on the inside had a reason to help a prisoner escape. However, he’d forgotten about the one person who would have been reckless enough to get involved, who he suspected had a personal motive for keeping Nox-Fleuret out of the hands of the soldiers.

He watched more closely as the three men approached the building clad in all black clothing and baseball caps. It was hardly noticeable, but he could see the telltale sign again in this video. The man at the front of the pack was favoring his left leg. It had to be Prince Caspian.

Stunned, Jacob stared at the screen as the heir to the crown pulled his phone from his pocket and made the call to Harry. Everything suddenly made sense. He’d wondered how a member of the rebellion would have been able to impersonate him well enough to fool Calhoun into abandoning his post. Caspian knew most of the guards by name as well as how they operated, so he would have had the confidence to pull off such a bold stunt without a hitch.

When the royal touched a key to the pad that unlocked the door, Jacob narrowed his eyes. Too late, he realized why Caspian had been acting strangely when they’d run into each other at the palace. He hadn’t been looking for him to run an errand; he’d been trying to get rid of him so he could steal one of the master keys from his empty office. I’d bet anything the key to the hospital is still missing, he thought, standing up from his chair and heading out of the room. He couldn’t believe the prince had been stupid enough to do something like this, but at least he knew how to find Iris now.

Without speaking to anyone or announcing his departure, the guard left the hospital and drove back to the palace to confront the rebellious prince. He wasn’t quite sure how he would approach the subject, but he knew that he would have to speak with him directly before he told Atlas what had happened. With any luck, Caspian would see reason and give up the girl’s location, so the king wouldn’t have to know he’d even been involved. If Atlas found out his own son had attempted to harbor a traitor, there was no telling what he would do. However, Jacob wasn’t unwilling to get the monarch involved if that was what he had to do. Everything depended on how willing the younger Maydestone would be to comply.

Once he’d returned to the palace, he headed inside and made his way to the stairs that would take him to Caspian’s room, hoping the prince had come home rather than run away with the rebel girl. Before he could even place his foot on the first step, though, he was intercepted by another guard.

“Sorry, but where are you going, sir?” the other man asked with a concerned expression, barring his access to the staircase.

Jacob eyed him, irritated by the interruption, “I need to speak with the prince. Stand aside.”

The guard winced. “I don’t think you’re going to be getting a coherent conversation out of him tonight, sir,” he warned tentatively. “His Highness just got back about half an hour ago. He was so drunk, he couldn’t even walk a straight line.”

“Drunk?” Jacob blinked.

“He went out to the club with those other boys. Arowood and Kinder,” the other guard nodded. “Looked like he really let himself go.”

“I see,” Jacob frowned. Briefly, he felt a flicker of doubt that he had been wrong and that Caspian must not have been involved in the escape at the hospital. However, his suspicion returned when he remembered that there had been three culprits. Caspian, Jay and Miles made three as well. Glancing up the stairs, he considered confronting the prince about it in spite of his inebriation, but if the other guard was right, he wouldn’t get anywhere tonight. It would be better to wait until the morning, when he was sober enough to rationally think about giving up Iris’s location. By now, King Atlas was probably asleep as well, so he wouldn’t have to tell him about what had happened until he woke up the next day.

I’ll give him until tomorrow, and then I’ll have my answers, he decided firmly.

Although Iris had spent the night in more comfortable accommodation she found it hard to get sleep, comforted by the soft blanket that she wrapped around her shaking form she kept her eyes closed willing for sleep to take her, but it hadn’t. All night she had been worrying about falling asleep, having a nightmare in front of Miles that she couldn’t explain why, she couldn’t talk about what had happened and nor did she feel like it with anyone. Even Cas to a degree because she didn’t want him to hear about her worries, her flaws and self-doubt because she felt if he knew just how dark her mind could get, he would think of her differently. It was a big part of herself that she was ashamed of, the usual happy perky persona hiding a lot of her true feelings which had started to seep out with everything that had happened.

Seeing the natural light seep into the room she sighed softly to herself gripping the blanket, knowing that it was reaching morning. Every sound she had heard in the night had made her jump, she was still on the anxious side waiting for someone to burst through the door and call for her arrest. Although drinking and having a good night with the boys had eased her worries, they had easily come back when she had time to think to herself. Doubts that the plan had truly gone by without any sort of problems, they had to know who would have taken her surely. Though the idea that Caspian, Miles or Jay would get into deep trouble because of her and she didn’t want that. The thought of her not being worth the trouble they would get into if found out.

I need to stop; these thoughts are not healthy. Iris knew that, the thoughts weren’t healthy, and she didn’t want to be in a constant battle with herself. Sitting up on the sofa the blanket dropped from her frame and she felt herself shiver from the cool morning temperature, lack of sleep always made her feel cold and she didn’t quite know why. Tentatively she moved from the sofa heading towards where she knew the bathroom was to use the toilet, trying to be as quite as possible as she didn’t want to disturb Miles who was still probably sleeping the alcohol off. Though he wasn’t quite as bad as how drunk Caspian was, the thought brought a smile to her face seeing him so happy and carefree around his friends. I’m glad I got to see that.

Looking at her reflection in the mirror she splashed cold water on her face hoping it would do something to ease the pale skin and dark circles, although she had a pale complexion this was almost ghostly looking. Eyes wandered down to her neck noting how most of the bruising had gone, just the odd tiny patch but no one would be able to tell unless they looked up closely. Touching her neck with her fingers she smiled not feeling any pain or tenderness which only meant it had mostly healed, without any difficulties hopefully. Hopefully I can shower today, I’m sure it will be okay. I’ll wait to ask Miles.

Forcing her thoughts onto a plan for the day rather than her feelings she moved out of the bathroom and back to the sofa grabbing the soft fluffy blanket wrapping it around her as she settled back down comfortable. Trying to shake off the shivers as she looked up at the ceiling from the sofa wondering just where she was headed for her future.

After a night of less than restful sleep, Caspian awoke the next morning to a splitting headache that made him want to crawl into a hole and die. He groaned painedly and refused to open his eyes, hoping that if he tried to go back to sleep, he would wake up the next time feeling a little better than he did now. He no longer felt the urge to vomit, but his stomach was still tender, and his whole body ached in tandem with the migraine. It had been a long time since he’d last made himself this miserable by drinking excessively. Usually when he went out, he cut himself off earlier to avoid getting so sick. Unfortunately, his friends had already roped him into it this time, so he could do nothing but wait for the agony of the hangover to pass on its own.

He let out his breath in a slow exhale and burrowed further beneath the duvet, starting to drift off again, only to be interrupted by a crisp knock on his bedroom door. The sound made him hiss, sensitive to any noise in his current state, and he mumbled, “Not right now.” Assuming the person on the other side of the door was a maid, one warning should have been all it took to ward her off. However, in the next moment, he heard a male voice call out from the hallway.

“Your Highness, I need to speak with you now,” Jacob said, folding his arms impatiently over his chest. It was already eight o’ clock, and he didn’t want to wait any longer to question the prince about his involvement in the prisoner’s escape. Atlas would most likely be waking up within the hour, so he needed to find out where she had gone as soon as possible.

At the sound of the guard’s familiar voice, Cas furrowed his brows and cracked open his eyes, then grimaced immediately as the hazy morning light seared his overly sensitive vision. He didn’t know what Jacob wanted, but surely it could wait. “Come back later,” he moaned, closing his eyes again and pulling a pillow over his head. “I’m hungover as fuck.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,” Jacob replied, bracing himself to face the moody royal as he took the knob in his hand and opened the door. “It’s about something that happened last night.” In truth, he was already convinced that Caspian had everything to do with Iris’s disappearance. After he’d seen the way the prince had spoken about her and even interacted with her before the abduction, he felt certain that Cas had let himself get closer to her than he should have. He had a motive, he had the time to get away with it, and he was clever enough to do so. Last night, the guard had also found that the master key to the hospital was, in fact, missing from its hook. However, he wasn’t about to reveal his hand this soon. He was going to make the crown prince sweat first and see how he would react to the “news” that Nox-Fleuret was gone.

As soon as Jacob mentioned that he was here because of an incident that had occurred the previous night, Caspian stiffened involuntarily. He had thought the guards wouldn’t make him a suspect. It was more likely that one of the other members of the rebellion had broken into the capital to rescue her after all… wasn’t it? His heart stumbled with nervousness, and he was thankful for the pillow he’d thrown over his head that concealed the flicker of worry that crossed his features.

Calm down, he chided himself sternly. I’m jumping to conclusions. Jacob doesn’t know anything. He’s probably just here to tell me that Iris is gone, so I can’t let him know that I already knew that. I have to convince him that I was really out at the club all night, and I’m just hearing this for the first time. He forced himself to take a slow breath and sat upright, wincing again and pressing an open palm to his head as the motion made him feel like he was being slammed over the head with a chair. He wished he didn’t have to have this conversation when he was feeling so horrible, but there was no way out of it now.

“What are you talking about?” he asked groggily, glancing at Jacob with a frown. At least he didn’t have to fake how physically and mentally exhausted he was. His hangover was no joke.

The guard studied him closely as he replied, “I came to inform you that Iris Nox-Fleuret escaped from the hospital last night. She’s gone.”

Cas stared at him, feigning surprise to the best of his ability, “What? Do you know where she went? How did she get out?”

“I’m not sure where she’s gone, but she was assisted by three men,” Jacob answered coolly. Stepping over to chair by the window, he took a seat and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I was hoping you might be able to help me narrow down our search, since you spent a week among the rebellion. How do you feel about answering a few questions for me, Prince Caspian?”

--

That morning, Miles was reluctant to get out of bed. Sometime during the night, he’d tossed from his side onto his back, sprawling haphazardly with his jaw hanging slack and quiet snores emanating from his open mouth. He had always been a deep sleeper, and even strong alcohol often wasn’t enough to change that. He snoozed for a few hours after the sun came up, only stirring from his near comatose state when someone knocked on the door of his bedroom.

“Sir, I’ve brought breakfast,” a maid called. “May I come in?”

In an instant, he went from ‘practically dead’ to wide awake, jolting upright and turning his head toward the door. He had a moderate hangover from the vodka, but he wasn’t nearly fog-headed enough to have forgotten everything that had happened before he’d passed out. He also remembered that Iris was still in the room with him. He glanced toward the sofa, finding that she was still there, swaddled in the blanket he’d given her before they’d gone to bed. For a split second, he noted how cute she looked all wrapped up in the oversized covers, but he didn’t have time to ogle when someone else was standing right outside the room.

“I’m naked!” he called back to the maid without thinking.

“O-Oh,” she fumbled, unprepared for his unabashed reply. “Should I… come back later?”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Miles agreed, climbing out of bed. “Thanks, Cindy!”

“You’re welcome, sir.”

Once he heard the sound of her footsteps receding from the door, he turned back to Iris shoving one hand into the pocket of his pajama bottoms and using the other to tame his unruly hair. “How’d you sleep?” he asked, brushing off the odd interaction with the servant as if it hadn’t happened. “I hope you’re not as hungover as I am this morning.”

The knock at the door had startled her, forgetting for a moment that there would be others around that wasn’t Miles. After all it was more than likely he had maids, cleaners and people who would cook and clean for him much like Caspian had in the palace. On top of that she had remembered how they had spoken about his parents and sister, although not always around they could be knocking on the door just to check in on their son, right? Biting her lip as she looked at the door she felt her heart stop for a moment, the brash part of her brain thinking it was the military but immediately she knew that was rubbish because they’d just kick down the door, not knock on it politely.

Hearing the voice, she let out a sigh of relief now knowing it was a maid, someone who had brought breakfast and she felt a pain in her stomach reminding her how she had gone a day without eating. Clutching at the blanket she smiled as Miles called out an excuse for the maid not to come in, thankful he had been quick on his feet even through whatever hangover he may have had. They were none the wiser, the maid had left no problem expressing how she’d come back later, and it bought them some time for a little.

“Oh, I don’t think I’m that hungover at all! Well a little headache, but overall, I’m okay. I did ensure that I drunk plenty of water to counter it as I'm not much of a drinker.” Finding herself smiling as she looked over at Miles still all tucked away nicely with the blanket wrapped around her, the soft material still feeling great against her skin and she didn't want to leave the cocoon she had made just yet. “I think poor Cas will be suffering out of everyone. How are you doing?” Avoiding the question of how she had slept, more because she wasn’t too sure how to answer it. Iris could be truthful, say she hadn’t slept, but then would he ask why? That would be a natural question to ask and she didn’t really want to be a burden whilst here, complaining how she couldn’t sleep when he was risking a lot to keep her hidden here.

“You slept soundly, snoring away.” Teasing gently as she rubbed her eyes, a part of her jealous at how soundly he had slept for the night, but it was no one’s fault but hers for not being able to think of other things. “Would it maybe be alright to grab some sort of shower or bath today? I understand if not, just. I don’t want to ask too much of you as just hiding me is enough and you’ve already put yourself at a huge risk with what you did. I’m rambling a little, now aren’t I? Sorry.” Shaking her head as she stopped herself from continuing to talk knowing she was probably embarrassing herself with rambling on when she didn’t need too. All she needed to do was just ask if she could take a shower, nothing more was needed than that.

“What sort of questions?” Caspian asked warily. Having hoped that Jacob had just stopped by to tell him that Iris was gone, the guard’s desire to ask him more about the incident made him nervous. He’d never done anything illegal before—well, nothing to this extent—and he didn’t know how he was supposed to act. What would make him come across as innocent? What would make him look guilty? Being forced to think on his feet was even more difficult with a raging hangover. He swallowed anxiously. His already dry mouth felt like it was full of cotton.

“I just noticed some peculiarities about the escape,” Jacob mused calmly. “I was hoping you could clear them up for me, since you probably know more about the rebels than I do at this point.”

That’s all? Cas felt himself relax. He could handle a few questions about the rebellion. Forcing a smile, he nodded, “What do you want to know?”

Jacob’s eyes narrowed for the briefest moment. The prince’s response to that question had been all he needed. He was absolutely certain now. Caspian had done it. “I just find it strange,” he clasped his hands between his knees. “That you would turn her over to the military so readily when you insisted she did nothing wrong.”

Cas stiffened, realizing his mistake too late. “I-I wasn’t…” he started and then trailed off, biting his lip as he fumbled to think up an excuse. Apparently Jacob did suspect him after all. He had to throw the guard off his scent, or he and his friends were as good as caught, and Iris would go back to prison. Heart hammering, he went on meekly, “I don’t care what happens to the people who rescued her. I just don’t want her to be arrested again. If she made it out of the capital alive, then I’m happy for her.”

“Mhm,” Jacob grunted, unconvinced. “Then why didn’t you say anything about it before I brought her up? If you were really concerned about her safety, you would have asked me right away if I was going to have her arrested again.” He rose from his seat. “I think the reason why you’re not worried is because you know we aren’t going to find her amongst the rebellion. There’s nothing for you to lose if she’s perfectly safe inside the capital, right?”

Cas turned his head away, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Pardon me, but cut the crap, Your Highness,” Jacob said dryly. “I know you were the one who took Nox-Fleuret from the hospital. My key to the building is missing, and the only people who had access to it are those who either live or work inside the palace. A rebel couldn’t have stolen it.”

Inwardly, Caspian swore. He’d been so drunk the night before that he’d completely forgotten to return the key to the security head’s office. It was still inside the pocket of the jeans that he’d thrown in his hamper before he’d gone to bed. Despite his best efforts, he hadn’t been able to completely erase his trail. “How do you know it wasn’t one of the servants or a guard?” he challenged. “What if the rebels have an inside man? I think we should have the staff vetted again—”

“One of the men in the security footage walked with a limp,” Jacob added, playing yet another card from his hand. “Favoring the same leg in which you were shot.”

Cas paled, straining to think of an explanation even though deep down, he knew he couldn’t win. “It isn’t impossible that a rebel could have been injured in the same leg…”

“Prince Caspian, we both know what happened last night,” Jacob said sternly. He was done playing games. King Atlas would be waking up soon, and he needed to have his answers now. Meeting the prince’s gaze with a hard stare, he demanded, “If you don’t want me to get His Majesty involved, I suggest you tell me where Iris is, so I can have her returned to the penitentiary quickly and discreetly.”

--

Miles nodded when Iris told him that she was feeling fine for the most part. She looked like she was doing alright, so he believed her. “Oh, he will,” he laughed when she mentioned Cas. “He won’t admit it, but he’s not even close to a heavyweight drinker. He’s not really a lightweight either… Just close enough to the middle that he gets horrendously sick when he has too much liquor.” When he and Jay had stayed overnight at the palace before, they’d seen the prince hungover a couple of times. They’d also seen the king reprimand him for letting himself go, but he didn’t say anything about that.

“I was?” Miles cringed when Iris revealed that he’d been snoring. “Sorry… I hope I didn’t keep you up. If I snore again tomorrow night, feel free to give me a shove. I’ve been told that I stop if someone rolls me over.” Far from a stereotypical playboy, he didn’t have overnight guests very often, but the few women that had slept in his room had confirmed that he wasn’t a quiet sleeper. Jay had complained too when they had shared a room at the palace while visiting Caspian. In his inebriation, he hadn’t even thought to warn Iris about it though.

Clearing his throat awkwardly, he nodded in response to her request. “Go ahead and use my shower,” he told her with a gesture toward the bathroom door. Not fluent in assuring someone that they didn’t need to say sorry, he didn’t respond to her bumbling apology. “It’s just around the corner, so you’ll have the whole nook to yourself. It isn’t visible from the bedroom at all.” Since the door leading into the adjoining bathroom was made of clear glass, he felt the need to make sure she knew the shower was private, at least.

“I’ll wait out here until you’re done,” he added, planting himself in the chair in the corner of the room.

It was nice to meet someone so relaxed, so enthusiastic and acted like it was a normal thing to harbour a criminal. So far, he hadn’t treated her any differently and it was nice, perhaps things would be okay and work out for everyone? Though Iris knew truthfully it probably meant that the relationship between her and Cas wouldn’t progress anymore, the brief snippets of affection last night and the small passing kisses could very well be her last as they all knew there wasn’t a chance of her living out in the Capital. This was purely a short-term option, she would have to go back to the districts, back home where she belonged. It won’t be so bad, I guess I have my life to be thankful for. Though… it won’t be the same. My father.

As if briefly forgetting that her father was dead, it was kind of surreal that only a day or so ago she had been informed of his killing. Matthew had taken great pleasure in telling her and showing her the pictures of his death, trying to spark some sort of reaction from her which at the time it hadn’t but then she had been so disoriented so in her own world that she had barely registered anything. A flicker of emotion crossed her face for a split second, hesitant as she felt a pang of sadness strike but as soon as it had happened it passed because she was not somewhere she felt safe enough to open up. It was nothing against Miles, but she hated the idea of dumping her emotional baggage on Cas let alone a good friend of his that she barely knew.

Smiling as she forced a laugh, she met his gaze seeing the cringe of when she mentioned the snoring, “Does this mean I have permission to shove you if you snore again?” Finding it quite amusing that all it would have taken was a shove to stop the snores, she didn’t mind at all last night. In fact, she had barely noticed it as she was too busy wrapped up in her own little world. Twisting her head to look at the glass she nodded as he explained the shower was around the corner and private, it had been a little bit of a worry when she had seen the glass but at least it was around the corner.

“Thanks Miles” As she rose from her feet she pulled the fluffy blanket from around her and folded it up neatly placing it on the edge of the sofa not wanting to leave it in a mess, “I’m assuming it’s okay to wear these again?” Gesturing to the attire as she moved towards the glass door hesitating as she reached out to it, “Are there towels inside?” It may have been a silly question, but she didn’t know if his towels were kept in the bathroom. It looked big enough to store them, but she didn’t want to just assume these things and how embarrassing it would be if it turned out there were no towels to dry herself with.

Caspian felt like his heart had stopped. They knew. Or, more specifically, Jacob knew that he was the one who had pioneered Iris’s escape from the hospital. The instant the words had fallen from the guard’s tongue, a simultaneous sense of alarm and despair had washed over him. He couldn’t believe how quickly Jacob had realized that he was the culprit behind the prisoner’s disappearance. Even though the other man was observant, he’d thought he would be able to get away with it because the military would set their sights outward toward the other members of the rebellion. Instead, it had taken the head of security less than twelve hours to catch him red-handed.

“Your Highness,” Jacob prompted him, interrupting his spiraling thoughts. “All I need is Nox-Fleuret’s location. She’s the one the soldiers want, so if you tell me where she is, nothing will happen to you. I can easily sweep your involvement under the rug so your father doesn’t find out.” Technically it would have been a breech in protocol to leave out such a major detail, but he knew the prince wasn’t thinking clearly. He was obviously infatuated with the girl, so this was his chance to cut ties without suffering any consequences. In his mind, it was the best and more gracious way out that the royal was going to stumble into.

To Cas, though, the mere thought of giving Iris up to the military made him taste bile. He cared about her too much to let them kill her when she’d done nothing to deserve it. She had saved his life and treated him with the love and respect that he’d been yearning for all his life. So, rather than giving in to Jacob’s demand, he set his jaw and met the guard’s gaze unwaveringly. “I can’t,” he said, dropping his act. There was no point in pretending to be innocent when the other man knew he’d done it. “Jake, you know they were going to kill her. I had to get her out of there before they took her back to the penitentiary.”

“You didn’t ‘have’ to do anything,” Jacob corrected him, crossing his arms. “I understand that you’ve gotten close to her, but she committed treason, Prince Caspian. She has to face the penalty for her actions.”

“Why?” Cas challenged. “She knows she was wrong before, and she’s already apologized profusely. Why should she still be executed when she’s trying to move on from her past?”

“It’s the law,” the guard answered shortly. He let out a sigh. It seemed like the prince wasn’t willing to see reason, which meant that he was going to have to go over his head with this. “I’m sorry, Your Highness, but if you won’t give her up quietly, I’m going to have to tell His Majesty and let him make the final decision about how to proceed.”

At the mention of his father, Cas choked. Jacob could be stern, but the king was absolutely ruthless. He dreaded to think what Atlas would do if he found out that he was the one who had helped Iris escape—not for his own sake but for hers. The monarch already thought he’d been brainwashed by the rebels, so he would be merciless in his retribution if he got his hands on her again. He couldn’t let Jacob turn her over.

“Wait,” he said quickly as the guard turned to leave. “Stop. Don’t—” he scrambled to get out of bed, ignoring the churning in his stomach and the pounding in his head from the sudden movement. “Don’t tell my dad anything,” he pleaded, reaching out to catch hold of Jacob’s arm. “You know what he’ll do if finds out I did this, right? He’ll blame her and have her killed in the most brutal way possible.” As he spoke, his voice cracked beneath the strain of the emotions he was barely keeping in check. “Jacob, listen to me. Iris is not an enemy. I can swear it on my life. She made some mistakes before, yes, but she regrets every single one of them. I saw the look in her eyes when we talked about it after she helped me get away from her father. She wasn’t lying to me, and ever since then, she’s continued to prove time and again that she wants to make up for what she did. That’s why she helped me get back to the capital too. She knew what could happen to her if she showed up at the border with me, yet she came anyway.”

He searched the guard’s eyes desperately, “Please, she’s not one of them anymore. It would be unjust to have someone killed who’s already begged for forgiveness, wouldn’t it? Please let her go. Tell the soldiers that she escaped from the capital already. I don’t care, just don’t let my dad know what actually happened. This is my way of paying her back for all the times she’s saved my life… I can’t let them kill her.”

For a moment, Jacob was silent. He was surprised by how passionately the prince felt about the issue, but more so than that, he was surprised by the hesitation he felt to disregard his pleas and go to the king anyway. He had always respected the monarchy because it was his job to do so, but the young royal clutching his forearm had earned his admiration with more than just a title. Watching the heir to the crown grow up and turn into someone worth following, he felt an odd dissonance at the thought of turning him over to King Atlas—as if he was being disloyal. He pursed his lips. A few minutes ago, his plan had been to go straight to the reigning king if the prince refused to comply, but now, he was uncertain.

Deciding to give himself time before he made up his mind, he asked, “How are you so sure she’s really changed?”

--

“As hard as you want,” Miles shrugged, smiling as Iris good-naturedly when they joked about shoving him when he snored. “I probably won’t wake up. Once I’m out, I’m dead to the world.” It wasn’t an exaggeration in the slightest. It took nothing less than a life-threatening emergency to drag him out of the depths of a REM cycle. He wasn’t worried about getting interrupted sleep if Iris chose to take him up on his offer and push him over if he woke her up the next night.

Settling down comfortably in his seat, he nodded when she asked if she could continue to borrow his clothes. “Yeah, I don’t need ‘em,” he assured her. Plus, he secretly liked the thought of her wearing his oversized shirt and shorts again that day. The thought made him shift his weight, and he looked away, reminding himself that she was a refugee that he was harboring. Nothing more, nothing less.

“My sister probably left to go do another photoshoot this morning, so I’ll steal some clothes from her while you’re washing up,” he added as an afterthought, glancing back at Iris. “I have no idea if you wear the same size or not, but it’s worth trying. That way you at least have… uh, some stuff that will fit you better.” More specifically, underwear made for women, but he couldn’t bring himself to say that.

When she asked about the towels, he nodded again, “Yeah, the extras are in the closet by the shower. Feel free to take whichever one you want.”

“I feel like you’ve told me waaaay to much there.” Iris smirked as he spoke about how deep his sleep was, “If ever there is a pen lying around, I may just have to test it out seeing as you’ll be dead to the world.” Chuckling softly to herself as she made a light-hearted threat of drawing on his face whilst he slept to see if he truly was a deep sleeper as he said he was. In all honesty Iris would never dare do such a thing but making a light joke, keeping the mood light felt appropriate with him. Iris could probably insult him in jest, and he would just do it back and find it amusing, it certainly kept her spirits on the brighter side than usual finding it hard to just disconnect around him.

Smiling as he confirmed he didn’t need the clothes she nodded her thanks, at least she had something to wear especially as she was certain he had trashed the hospital gown. Good riddance. Thinking to herself as she folded her arms listening to him talk on about clothes, features softening with a gentle smile at the idea of something more feminine. Not that she wasn’t thankful for the shorts and T-shirt because they were comfortable, but she had slept in them. Plus, it did feel a little weird wearing a guy’s clothes when she had no relation to them at all. “Oh, that would lovely. It’s fine if not. I’m sure I can make these shorts and T-shirt look fashionable.”

Holding her hand up in a wave after the confirmation there would be towels, she headed into the bathroom to get a much-needed shower. It was hard not to feel anxious showering in his room, but she trusted in the fact it was private and she knew she was just overthinking things like she always did. Turning a corner, she could see the shower, but her eyes sought out something else, the closet to which the towels would be in. Smiling as she grabbed a big fluffy white towel it was soft just like the blanket, the blanket of course had the towel beaten hands down, but it didn’t have the rough feeling like the towels in the districts. These felt so soft and smooth she was almost entranced by it as her fingers brushed against the white fabric.

“Right, let’s see how to work this then.” Talking to herself as she placed the gathered towels down and reached into the shower playing about with the buttons. It took a few minutes but Iris felt like she had finally gotten it down, she knew which was which the water pressure the temperature and when she was happy with how warm it was she began to peel the clothes off of her body dropping them into a pile on the floor just to the side of the shower.

Ah, much better. Stepping into the shower she could feel the running water hit her skin and within seconds she felt relaxed, like this hot clean water was washing away all the bad things that had happened. Scrubbing the dirt Iris was just glad she had access to these basic things that made her feel human, there was nothing worse than feeling dirty and she was glad she was able to make use of the facilities whilst here. As she cleaned her thoughts tried to steer themselves into the wrong direction, things she didn’t want to focus on so instead she began to hum to herself in the shower hoping that humming the music would distract her from spiralling.

“How am I sure?” Caspian echoed with a hint of incredulousness. His grip loosened on Jacob’s arm now that it seemed like the guard was no longer hellbent on storming off to sing to his father. Thinking over the question, he hesitated for a moment. Of course, he trusted Iris wholeheartedly and knew that she would never intentionally do something to hurt him. It wasn’t that the other man’s inquiry had planted any seeds of doubt in his head. His struggle was disentangling the objective facts from his affection for her, since Jacob wouldn’t be convinced by a simple ‘because I love her.’

“Honestly, it might just be easier for me to tell you everything rather than try to give you a specific answer to that question,” he sighed, deciding it was too difficult to pinpoint exactly what had led him to have faith in Iris. Gesturing to the small table by the window, he led the way over so that he and Jacob could sit down while he relayed the whole story.

The guard followed him quietly. He was still reluctant to believe that a rebel had changed sides, but he was willing to hear the prince out. In all the years he’d known Caspian, he’d learned that the young royal could be quick to trust others and often took flattery at face-value, even if the flatterer had an ulterior motive. It was entirely possible that Nox-Fleuret was stringing him along, using his heart of gold to achieve something for the rebellion. However, he also knew himself. As an ex-soldier who had seen the darkest side of humanity, he was the exact opposite of the future king of Aspiria. His bent was to believe the worst in everyone until proven otherwise, so it was possible that he was judging the girl too harshly. Taking a seat across from Caspian, he decided to withhold his opinion until after he heard his side of the story.

And he did.

For the next twenty minutes, the prince launched into a lengthy description of everything that had happened to him since the day he’d been taken by the rebels. He explained that Iris’s father, Regis, had kept him locked up in a cell in his basement—the very same one that the rescue team had discovered upon raiding the building—and that Iris was the one who had kept his strength up with intermittent deliveries of food and water behind the leader’s back. He also told the guard how Regis had verbally and physically abused her when he’d found out what she had been doing.

From there, he described the escape; how he had gotten caught the first time when he’d tried to climb out the window, how Regis had beaten him, and how Iris had eventually treated the worst of his wounds and helped him escape. He made sure to include the detail that he had lost trust in her during that time and hadn’t believed she was actually rescuing him until they had gone an entire day without getting caught by the other rebels. Knowing that Jacob was frugal with his trust, he felt like it would be helpful to inform the guard that Iris had earned his trust back after she’d lost it initially.

He went on to tell Jacob about their stay with Maisie—though he omitted her name just to be safe—their time in Bel Bicis, the fight with Ethan and Thomas in the street, and the events that had occurred in the Scourge’s prison hideout. By the time he was finished, he nearly felt winded. It was the first time he’d opened up to anyone about everything that had happened outside of his ridiculous psychotherapy session with Dr. Foster. He studied Jacob’s face expectantly, searching for a sign that the guard had been convinced not to hand Iris over to the soldiers. If he refused to compromise, Cas didn’t know what he was going to do.

For his part, Jacob hid his thoughts with an unreadable expression. After everything the prince had said, he had a lot to consider. Although he was only hearing one side of the story, it sounded like Iris had done quite a bit to keep Aspiria’s crown prince safe, and he couldn’t think of a reason why she might have done so. Well, other than the possibility that she was pulling a long con to win him over, become queen, and have him assassinated in order to secure the throne for the Scourge. However, her bold and somewhat reckless actions made him doubt the likelihood of that. If she had been vying for royalty for selfish reasons, it would have been quite a gamble for her to allow herself to be arrested and imprisoned at the border. If not for her seizure, she would probably have been dead by now. As reluctant as he was to admit it, Caspian seemed to be right in his assessment that she was really on his side.

How long will it last though, when their draw to each other is built on a house of cards? Jacob couldn’t help but wonder. By now, he was utterly convinced that Iris and Caspian had fallen for each other, even if the prince had never stated it outright. He also knew that their relationship, whatever it was, had nowhere to go. She was a former member of the rebellion, and he was on track to be king. Atlas would never allow them to be together. The guard worried that they were getting their hopes up, when in reality, they were going to have to split up eventually. Whether Iris was forced to leave the capital or Caspian was engaged to marry someone of his own status, their time together had an expiration date. The only question was when everything would fall apart.

He drummed his fingers on his knee, holding the prince’s gaze solemnly. Personal opinions aside, he knew Caspian was right. Iris had made amends for her past mistakes and was no longer a threat to the monarchy. There was no reason to have her executed, and if he reported her to King Atlas, she would be dead before the sun went down. “Fine,” he said, feeling more content with his decision to take the younger Maydestone’s side. “I understand why you’re trying so hard to protect her, and I agree with you. If she isn’t an enemy, killing her would be wrong.”

When the words left Jacob’s mouth, Cas felt weak with relief. He was glad that the head of security had agreed with him after all. “Thank you,” he breathed, sinking back in his chair. “Will you… tell the soldiers that she got away?”

The guard nodded, “They’ll likely want to continue looking for her for a few more days just to make sure she’s really gone, but I’ll spread word that she was taken by other members of the Scourge.”

“That’s fine,” Cas glanced down at the silicon brace on his wrist, adjusting it slightly with his free hand. “They won’t find her, so I’m not really worried.”

Jacob grunted and rose to his feet. He was curious where the prince had hidden the girl, but he knew better than to ask. The less anyone knew, the better, including him. However, he wasn’t going to leave just yet. “A word of advice, Your Highness,” he added, prompting Cas to look up at him again. He paused briefly, pursing his lips, and then spoke quietly: “Don’t dive so deep that you drown yourself before you realize you need to come up for air.”

“That’s cryptic,” Cas eyed him confusedly.

“I think you know what I mean,” Jacob assured him, not bothering to elaborate. With a curt bow, he turned and exited the room, leaving the prince behind to puzzle over his parting message.

--

Oh, I know you could, Miles thought, biting his lower lip when Iris joked about making his clothes fashionable. She could even make a garbage bag fashionable. Why the hell did Cas have to bring back a girl as hot as she was? Housing her would have been a lot easier if he didn’t have to pretend like he didn’t find her ridiculously attractive, so he wouldn’t make her uncomfortable.

When she disappeared into the bathroom, he turned his back to the glass door and ran both hands through his unkempt hair, puffing out his cheeks as a long exhale escaped his lips. It was tortuous. Hiding her from the soldiers was both his most coveted fantasy and most dreaded nightmare at the same time. It was also a gamble. If he made a move and she reciprocated, then watching her would be even more of a thrill than it already was. However, if he tried and she recoiled, things would just be awkward between them the rest of the time that she stayed with him. He didn’t know what to do.

Coming to the conclusion that he was just going to send himself into a tailspin if he kept thinking about it, he snuck out of his room to distract himself by raiding his sister’s closet for clothes.

Luckily, his guess had been right, and the bedroom was empty by the time he got there. There were no maids around either. He slipped inside and made a beeline for the oversized walk-in, turning on the light and looking over the rows of fancy, vogueish outfits that lined the walls. Not knowing the first thing about women’s fashion, he collected a variety of tops, bottoms, dresses, and undergarments and piled them in his arms. Iris could go through everything and pick what she liked when she got out of the shower. He just hoped at least some of it would fit her, since he’d heard his sister and past girlfriends gripe about how hard it was to find clothing that was designed for their body types.

Once he had a surfeit of options for her to choose from, he ducked back out of the closet and headed back to his own room, where he dumped the clothes on the bed and seated himself on the sofa to scroll on his phone while he waited for Iris to finish washing up.

As the water beat down on her skin she was hoping it would wash away her worries, get rid of all the bad memories and even though she tried to hum in hopes it would distract her from the flashes of memory, they continued to haunt her. Trembling as the hot water warmed her body she felt her lower lip tremble as she tried to push down the thoughts, forcing them to the back of her mind but it seemed her thoughts had something else in mind for her. No, please. Stop it. As if telling herself would force it down, would force it to stop but it didn’t.

Raising her hands to her head she gripped at her hair as she knelt down in the shower, water still beating down at her as she shook her head wanting it to stop. Please. It seemed the pleading word of please had been some sort of trigger, flashes of the interrogation seeped in and it almost felt like she was reliving it all over again.

“You’re right, you are a dead person walking. Just like your father, well he is no longer walking. He was executed more than a few days ago. Regis Nox-Fleuret the leader of the rebellion, he was killed for his crimes.”

It was like she could hear his voice, the mocking voice of Matthew who had interrogated her, unable to stop the shudder as the flashes continued. The reminder that her father was dead, and she still hadn’t processed it, she knew he was a bad person, but the way she had received his news still hurt.

“No words about his death? Surely you loved him, he was your father after all.”

I did love him, right? I know he made bad decisions. I know he hurt a lot of people, but. It’s not wrong to grieve for his loss.

“Ah, I get it. You probably think we are lying. Let me show you, just so you know it’s the truth.”

Flinching as the flash of images crossed her mind, the photos he had shown her of how they had killed her father like it was natural. Without noticing the tears had flowed from her eyes and she had begun to cry softly in the shower, the truth was that no matter how many fake smiles she put on she was still very much broken and hadn’t fully come to terms with everything. It was becoming apparent that however she was coping was not very well, but she tried to make out that it was okay.

It didn’t stop there, the words played over in her head, cringing as this time she could hear her own begs and cries for death. How she had begged for them to kill her as she had given up all the information they had wanted. Feeling lost in her own world of thoughts she tried to calm herself from her sobs, not wanting to let herself get caught in this downward spiral that she knew was beginning to affect her. I have to stop; I need to stop. Cas broke me out. I’m safe… I’m safe here. Repeating the words over and over she reached up shakily turning the shower off forcing herself to put a smile on her face trying to convince herself she was fine.

Using the towels to dry herself off she changed back into the loose-fitting clothes that Miles had supplied for now until there were other options and headed back to the bedroom. Feeling cleaner and a bit more comfortable she walked out of the bathroom back into the room as she continued to dry off the damp strands of her hair hoping she hadn’t been too long getting all caught up in her emotions.

Alone in his room, Cas stared at the door Jacob had just disappeared through, reflecting on his obscure warning. It had been an odd thing to say when it had seemed like the guard had chosen to take his side. If he had decided that helping Iris was the right move, then why would he act like there were going to be consequences to hiding her from the soldiers? He stood up from his seat and headed into the bathroom, deciding to think about it while he got ready for the day. Hopefully a hot shower would help him get rid of the lingering hangover that made it difficult for him to piece his thoughts together.

As he stripped off his nightclothes and stepped under the warm stream of water, he wondered when his father was going to have him resume the private lessons that had ended when he’d been abducted from the capital. So far, the king hadn’t mentioned anything about his tutors, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he would be expected to further his studies. His father would never risk allowing him to forget all the ‘crucial’ information that he needed in order to successfully ascend the throne.

Maybe he’s waiting to find out from Dr. Foster if I’m even mentally competent enough to continue learning, he thought dryly, closing his eyes and tilting his chin up as the water rolled off his head and shoulders. Even though the idea had only come to him because he was still bitter about it, he wouldn’t have been surprised if it was true. Atlas was so focused on molding him into the perfect successor that he was probably panicked that his son had come back from the other districts with new thoughts and opinions in his head. It doesn’t matter that I came back alive when I also came back refusing to follow in his footsteps.

Then there was the matter of what Jacob had said. Though the guard had agreed to keep quiet about Iris’s location, it was obvious that he had reservations about something. As Caspian stood in the shower, he mulled it over, repeating the guard’s words silently to himself until he realized it. Jacob hadn’t been talking about rescuing Iris; he’d figured out that he and Iris were closer than he’d let on. The color drained from his face. For a moment, he felt the urge to find the guard again and make sure that he wouldn’t say anything about their taboo relationship to his father. However, the impulse was short lived. If Jacob wasn’t going to tell Atlas that he was the one who had broken her out of the hospital, there was no way he would tell the king that they were seeing each other romantically. The warning hadn’t been a threat, it had been made out of genuine concern. Jacob was worried that he was going to find himself in deep waters if he didn’t break things off with Iris.

But I’m not going to do that, he thought stubbornly, turning off the water and wrapping a towel around his waist. He knew the odds he faced by attempting to be with Iris, and he’d already decided that she was worth it. He was sick and tired of letting everyone else dictate the decisions he made just because he was the crown prince. For once, he was going to take control and do something that he wanted to do whether the other people in his life thought he was being wise or not.

With that thought in mind, he finished up the rest of his routine hygiene, popped a couple ibuprofens to ease his headache, and dressed himself before he headed to the kitchen for breakfast. With any luck, Atlas would buy the lie that Iris and ‘the other rebels’ had escaped the capital, and another lockdown wouldn’t be put in place.

--

While he waited for Iris to get out of the shower, Miles eventually began glancing toward the bathroom door, wondering what was taking her so long. It had been a while since she’d disappeared around the corner, and he’d thought she would have been done by now. A thought of her slipping on the slick tile surround and hitting her head crossed his mind, and he fidgeted with his phone anxiously. If she actually had hurt herself, he had no idea what to do. It wasn’t like he could just waltz into the bathroom and check on her, after all. If she was fine, that would have been the absolute worst thing he could do.

He glanced at the door one more time and shifted his weight restlessly. If she doesn’t come back out in the next fifteen minutes, I’ll make sure she’s okay, he thought, deciding that was more than enough time for her to finish up.

Almost as soon as he made the decision, he blinked as a flicker of motion caught his eye, and Iris stepped out of the bathroom. She was wearing the same clothes he’d given her the day before, making his t-shirt fashionable, as she’d put it earlier. He stared briefly before standing up from the sofa. “I have no idea what you like to wear, so I brought you lots of choices,” he told her, gesturing to the heap of clothes he’d left on his bed. “Take whatever you want. My sister has so many, she’ll never notice these are gone.”

Still using the towel beneath her fingertips, she continued to dry off her hair as she met Miles’ gaze smiling softly at the fact, he had brought quite a few different choices from his sisters’ closet. Happy that her hair wasn’t dripping wet anymore and was towel dried enough to not cause discomfort she took the towel in her hands and folded it up before placing it neatly on the table, she’d ask were to put it later as right now she was interested in the different options he had chosen for her. “You sure she won’t notice? I don’t want you getting into trouble for me.”

Moving towards the pile on the bed she began to look through the choices, colours and variety of tops bottoms and dresses. There was quite the choice for her and a small part of her was excited at the options and she couldn’t wait to just try them on, it had been such a long time having the option to choose what to wear. Iris didn’t count the options she had at home in the districts because the only options she had to choose from were which torn jeans she’d wear or a jumper or a plain T-Shirt. Never had there been a choice like there was in front of her. Though I guess when I went shopping with Cas, I was able to choose a little, I just felt a little bad. I didn’t want to take the piss with him. I still don’t want to take the piss now. Is this really okay?

Finding her thoughts trail off she looked back down at the pile of clothes this time noticing a dark red dress, fingers brushed against the soft fabric as she felt herself smile. It’s his favourite colour, I doubt I’d suit such a daring colour, but maybe I’ll try it for him one day. I’m sure he’d like it. Trailing her fingers from the dress to another navy-blue garment she picked it up in her hands holding it to her body contemplating on wearing this outfit with a smile on her face. “It’s not often I wear dresses.” Speaking to herself more than anything, Miles didn’t need to know what kind of clothes she would usually wear, he probably didn’t care either. “I don’t count that hospital gown as a dress either.” Or that hideous pink number that Ethan wanted me to wear. Finding herself cringe at the memory of how that had meant to be a dinner date, thankful that instead the military had raided the prison and they had made their escape.

“Thank you, for doing this, finding me clothes too.” Deciding that she would go with the blue number she grabbed the other essentials and picked the towel back up to return it to the bathroom. “I won’t be a moment.” Moving back to where she had showered, she knew that around the corner was private so she could change there, and she was certain she had caught sight of a laundry hamper in the bathroom. Dumping the towel and the clothes that Miles had leant her into the hamper she got herself changed into his sister’s clothes for the day.

It was hard to stop the smile on her face as she moved back out the bathroom dressed in more feminine clothes, grinning as she looked back at Miles. “It’s nice. I feel somewhat normal again.” Iris wasn’t even conscious of the scaring on her leg from the bear trap, the incident that had started this whole mess off in the first place. The dress wasn’t a perfect fit, but it wasn’t tight on her, just a little bit baggy.

In the kitchen, Caspian seated himself at the elevated bar with one elbow propped on the table and his cheek pressed tiredly into the palm of his hand. The cooks were preparing him a light, simple breakfast of toast and jam with three poached eggs, since his stomach was still tender from the alcohol with which he’d tortured it the night before. In front of him, there was a half-full cup of tea that he’d been sipping at while he waited for his food. It was the first meal he was having outside the confines of his bedroom since he’d returned to his home. For once, he was actually hoping to run into his father, so he could hear about the king’s plans to deal with Iris’s disappearance.

Things were still tense between him and Atlas from their unresolved conflict, but at the moment, their personal feud wasn’t as important as it was for him to know if he could visit Iris at the Kinders’ manor soon. After the soldiers had taken her away from him at the border, he didn’t want to leave her alone for very long. He felt like it was his responsibility to make sure nothing else happened to her. It was difficult to do that from a distance, and his stomach knotted at the thought of the guards stealing her again before he could do anything to stop them.

Realistically, he knew she was safe with Miles. It was highly unlikely that the soldiers would be searching the private estates of the high borns in the capital, especially when Jacob was going to lead them to believe that she and her rescuers were long gone. However, he still itched to see her again. Aside from his desire to protect her, he also wanted to be near her simply because she felt more like home to him now than his actual house did. Her presence was soothing, her touch was warm, and he would have been lying if he’d said that he wasn’t thrilled about her idea to spend the night together as soon as they could.

At the thought of it, his cheeks flushed with ruddy color, and he lowered his gaze to the tea cup in front of him, murmuring a quiet ‘thank you’ to the cook who set down his breakfast plate beside the beverage. Picking up his fork, he tried to get his wild heart under control as he buried the prongs into an egg and cut it open.

He dug into his food in a tentative manner, hesitant to stuff himself when he was still hungover, but only looked up again when he heard approaching footsteps. Turning away from the eggs and toast, he perked up slightly at the sight of Jacob, who was walking over to take a seat at his side. “Is my dad awake?” he asked, his dark eyes flitting to the nearby servants as he mentioned the king. Though he trusted the guard to be discreet about the subject, he was still a little tense bringing it back up around other listening ears.

Jacob nodded without looking at him. He had spent the last half hour trying to calm a rather incensed Atlas after he had informed the monarch that their prisoner had escaped. With no lead to give him—at least, not one that he hadn’t agreed to keep quiet about—he’d floundered more than he’d wanted to when the king had barraged him with questions. Atlas had wanted to know how the girl had slipped away, who had helped her, where they had gone, who was responsible for the lapse in protection, and more. Jacob had done his best to relay what he knew from the security footage without incriminating Caspian or assigning blame to Harry, who had been convinced that he’d been reassigned elsewhere by the sly prince.

Of course, Atlas, in his fury, had wanted to have multiple people fired and even imprisoned for their negligence, but Jacob had managed to soothe him enough to accept that Iris was gone and that all the blame fell on the rebellion. There was no harm in pointing the king toward the traitors, after all. They were better off dead.

“He is, and he agrees with me that we need to focus our efforts on securing the border walls of the capital,” he informed Cas nonchalantly, alluding to his success in convincing Atlas that the rebels were the ones who had spirited Iris back to the other districts. “That’s what I’ll be doing for the rest of the day.”

Cas breathed a sigh of relief. It sounded like things were finally starting to go his way. “So all he’s doing is heightening security around the perimeter?” he asked to clarify.

“And then some,” Jacob added. “The capital will also be going into lockdown for a week, so the soldiers will have time to conduct a more thorough sweep of the streets to make sure they aren’t hiding out under our noses.” He turned to the prince. “Unfortunately, that means you’ll be confined to the palace until next Wednesday.”

“Oh,” Cas deflated. There was going to be a lockdown after all. He wouldn’t be able to see Iris again until it was over. Even though he knew he should be celebrating the fact that she was going to get away safely, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment that they were going to have to be apart from each other for so long. Picking up his cup, he took another sip of tea and set it down again. “Well, thanks for letting me know. I guess I’ll have to find something to keep me occupied for the next few days.”

Jacob nodded again, “You’re welcome, Your Highness.”

--

“I don’t think so,” Miles assured Iris with a shrug. “Even if she does, I’ll just tell her that one of her friends must have stolen them. She doesn’t hang out with the best people, and they’re always swiping stuff from each other. Usually over catty things like someone thinking someone else stole her boyfriend.” He pulled a face as he remembered one such incident. His sister had been accused of taking someone else’s scarf, and she had retaliated by calling the other girl fat—she wasn’t—and bringing up a time when the girl had slept with some guy they had both been interested in at the time. “Models are hot, but they’re too dramatic for their own good. That’s why I won’t date them. Not worth the trouble.”

Taking a seat in the sofa again while Iris looked over the clothing selection, he glanced at her when she mentioned that she didn’t often wear dresses. “Really? Why not?” he asked curiously. All he’d seen her wear so far were the hospital gown and his own oversized clothes, so he didn’t have much of a view of what she looked like, but he imagined that she would look great in a dress if she put one on. When she moved, he caught subtle glimpses of the curves of her figure underneath the baggy fabric. She had a nice figure.

“No problem,” he said in response to her words of gratitude, flashing her a friendly smile. As she disappeared into the bathroom again, he turned away to continue browsing his phone, watching a couple short videos that caught his interest. As he got about halfway through the second one, the device buzzed with a notification, and he furrowed his brows as Cas’s name appeared, attached to an incoming text.

It’s amazing that he’s awake before noon, he thought with an amused smirk, opening the message. However, the expression vanished when he read the contents of the note. Leaning back into the cushion behind him, he muttered a swear under his breath and then glanced at the bathroom door again when Iris stepped through. As he’d expected, she looked stunning in the navy blue dress she’d picked out. Although it wasn’t a perfect fit, the fabric still flowed over body in a way that revealed more than the too-big shirt and shorts he’d lent her earlier.

“You look great,” he complimented, getting up from his seat once more and then rubbing his arm awkwardly. “Um, Cas just texted me while you were changing. Apparently, there’s gonna be a lockdown in the capital for a week, so you’re stuck here until it’s over.” In truth, there hadn’t been a plan in place yet to sneak Iris out of his family’s mansion, but he wasn’t sure what to do with her for an entire week. He knew what he wanted to do, of course. However, if she wasn’t interested in him the same way he was drawn to her, they would be trapped in an awkward hell for seven days. That was too much pressure for him to handle.

“I could look for some games for us to play in the meantime?” he suggested, trying to think of some more wholesome activities to engage in. “Do you like cards?”

Whilst Iris had changed, she thought on his words, he didn’t date models because of the drama and trouble it caused. It made her curious about the subject and she didn’t let it drop when she had returned in the new outfit, “So models are not worth the trouble… So, what is your type? I thought all the high born boys would want some sort of model, they must look stunning.” To her it was innocent question, she wasn’t interested in him in the slightest but she wanted to know why he wasn’t interested in models because she assumed that all the high borns would adore and want to date a model. Did Cas feel the same? Would he have ever dated a model? It did for a split second make her doubt herself and her own looks when the boys could probably have any model going, what did Cas see in her when he could have anyone in the kingdom swoon over him?

“Oh well… dresses aren’t easy to come by in the districts.” Iris smiled answering the question from earlier as to why she didn’t wear that kind of attire, “And trust me the dresses you can get your hands on… well yikes, much prefer jeans and a jumper compared to that. They all seem to be grey and that is not a nice colour… but then I guess most clothes are pretty faded out there.” Hearing the compliment from Miles of her looking great in the dress she kept the smile on her face, but found it dropping ever so slightly at the mention of Cas texting.

“A week?” It was hard not to be shocked; she should have expected something like that, but lockdown for a week. What if they started searching houses for her? She knew that she’d be here in his home for a little bit but hearing that it was definitely going to be at least a week felt strange. I won’t be able to see Cas for a week… what if… what if he has a change of heart about us? What if it was all just because the trauma pushed us together. The pang she felt at the idea of them being apart for so long did worry her, she knew she was overthinking it and worrying on it further would only upset her and she knew she was a little on edge already with everything.

“Ahh…” Feeling her cheeks heat up in embarrassment as a sheepish smile crossed her face, “I’ll be honest I don’t know many card games.” A thought flashed back to how Harry had tried to teach her a card game in the hospital, but she had been so disconnected it didn’t work out. “I doubt you want to play snap.” Laughing a little nervously as she admitted about the card game. “Well… I might know more as I play, but I just can’t remember if I ever did.” Rubbing her arm feeling a little nervous she looked at Miles, “We could watch something? I’m sure there are loads of movies I have never seen before. Unless you really are okay with teaching me how to play cards.”

After tapping ‘send’ on the text he had written discreetly to Miles, Cas sighed and slipped his phone back into his pocket. He wished he could do something to convince his father that a lockdown wasn’t necessary, but he couldn’t risk drawing attention to himself. There was no good reason for him to tell the king that they shouldn’t take every precaution against the rebellion, especially when he had just gotten home from being abducted by them. If he even said a word about it, he already knew what Atlas would think. The monarch would accuse him of being brainwashed again and treat him like he was incompetent.

The thought made his chest feel tight with a mixture of hurt and frustration, and he took another bite of his food to mask the roiling emotions. He had to remind himself that he shouldn’t pander to his father for approval. Not anymore. Not when he had Iris, who didn’t think he was just a screw-up who was too soft to be king. He wasn’t cut out to lead Aspiria the same way his predecessors had before him, and he couldn’t let Atlas manipulate him into thinking there was something wrong with him for being kind and understanding of others. He also couldn’t let him find out that he was the one who had helped Iris escape from the hospital. The safest play would be to go along with the lockdown for a week, pretend he was on board, and then see Iris as soon as the restrictions were lifted.

With a subtle nod to himself, he finished off the rest of his breakfast, said a quick goodbye to Jacob and headed back to his room to nap off the last of his hangover.

--

“Um,” Miles said dumbly when Iris asked him about his type. The first answer that had popped into his head had been “you,” but the thought of saying that out loud made him want to crawl under a rock. He did have a thing for sultry blondes—who didn’t?—and he liked her willingness to get in the metaphorical dirt with the lads, but he wasn’t about to admit it out loud. That was way too risky. He was going to save that for a time when he could escape if things went awry and she said that she wasn’t attracted to him too. The beginning of a week-long lockdown was definitely not the best time.

Fortunately, he was spared the awkwardness of trying to dance around the question when Iris told him about dresses in the other districts. “Oh,” he mused. It was odd to him that women outside the capital preferred grays and muted tones, but he supposed culture was different everywhere. “Well, if you like bright colors, the capital is the best place to buy things like this,” he gestured to the other clothes on the bed. “I’ve seen high born girls wear all sorts of interesting colors. Depending on how things go, maybe you could go shopping later to find something in your size.”

When she said she didn’t know many card games and suggested that they could watch a movie instead, he shrugged. “Why not both?” he posed casually. “It looks like we’re gonna be spending a lot of time together, so we can do whatever you want until the lockdown is over.” The one good thing about being trapped at home was that there was plenty of things for them to do. His home may not have been quite as elaborate as the royal palace, but the Kinders were still wealthy. They could keep themselves occupied with all sorts of activities as long as they avoided the help.

Suddenly, his phone went off again, and he looked at the screen to see that Jay was calling. He stared at the caller ID for a moment before he blanched, remembering that he was supposed to have woken up early to meet his friend and get his car back from the alley. “Shit,” he groaned, turning to Iris apologetically. “Sorry, I have to take this.” Turning away from her, he lifted the device to his ear, “Hey, Jay. So sorry. I know we were supposed to get the car earlier, but I overslept and—”

Dude, slow down. It doesn’t matter, Jay cut him off.

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?” Miles frowned.

I swung by downtown when I was heading over to pick you up this morning, just to make sure everything was still okay, you know? Anyway, when I got there, I couldn’t even get close to the car. The alley was swarming with police. I drove up to ask what was going on, and they just said they’d located a vehicle that was involved in a crime.

“Are you serious?” Miles squawked, slapping a hand to his forehead as the color drained from his face. “Oh my god. Fuck, man. They have the plate number! They’ll know it was me!”

Calm down, Jay said quickly. We can still fix this. That’s why I didn’t call you right away. I came up with an idea.

“Spill it already,” Miles prompted him impatiently. “This is my life on the line! You know the king doesn’t fuck around with traitors.”

I know. Don’t worry. Just call the police station as soon as you hang up with me and report your car stolen.

“Won’t that sound suspicious since I’d be reporting it after the police found it abandoned in an alley?” Miles asked dryly.

Not necessarily. Just build off the story we came up with to cover our asses. Tell the police you were at the club with me and Cas. I was the DD, so you rode with me, but you accidentally left your garage door open when you left. When you got home, you were completely wasted, so you didn’t notice anything was wrong until you woke up today. Say you were about to run to the pharmacy for painkillers, and that was when you realized your car was gone. The cameras that caught us going in and out of the club with back up your alibi.

“What if they ask me why they found it behind the same club where we were supposed to be hanging out?”

Just act as surprised as you can if they tell you where they found it. It isn’t impossible that it was a coincidence. Besides, they have no idea that you or I even know who Iris is, so they can’t pin either of us with a motive for helping her. You’ll be fine. Just call the station and make the report, and the rest should take care of itself.

“If you say so,” Miles took a steeling breath. Hanging up the call with Jay, he shook his head and turned back to Iris. “Sorry again but don’t say anything for a few minutes… I have to phone the police station, and if they hear any voices in the background, we’re both screwed.”

The Capital had spent a whole week in lockdown at the Kings command at the information of her disappearance. It had been quite a long week for all parties involved because there was a sense of fear that they’d all get caught, that they hadn’t just gotten away with it and they’d all go down for treason. No one truly felt safe and Iris could honestly say that as each day passed, she found herself worrying even more than the last day. It didn’t help that she was still keeping a lot of her emotions bottled up and not seeing Cas was playing on her mind a lot as she was worried that he would think she wasn’t worth the trouble anymore.

It was however hard to stay sad or worry when she was around a personality like Miles, he always seemed so upbeat and positive and she felt like she had grown closer to him with the time they had spent together. Though it would have been extremely awkward if they didn’t find some common ground between them especially with being cooped up together for a whole week. No one had found her in his home and she was feeling more comfortable in her surroundings as the time passed, though sleep was something that was still difficult for her as she still feared the nightmares plaguing her and she didn’t want to disturb him as she slept on the sofa.

Throughout the week Iris had been battling with her own emotions, fears of being found, fears of Caspian not loving her anymore and it was only the adventure that kept them together. Then she felt guilty for thinking like that because she should have mourned her father, paid some sort of respect for him and not been too focused on if a boy loved her. Those thoughts were soon replaced with the idea that mourning her father was disrespectful because of what he had caused and what he had done to Caspian because it wasn’t right. It was still hard to turn her back on her family like that, even though her father wasn’t all there it felt wrong just ignoring the fact he had tried to raise her.

Miles had kept her busy though, when awake they had spent time watching various different films and TV shows. Miles had taught her a few more card games other than snap and when he had taught her she remembered playing the different games before, learning it again had unlocked just a few simple memories and it felt great just learning a little bit more about herself.

It was finally the day the lockdown would be lifted, as long as nothing else happened Iris just hoped it meant she could see Cas again as it had been so long not seeing him. It had been quite the emotional rollercoaster and she just wanted to spend some time alone with him and hopefully with the lockdown gone it meant they could work something out. “I bet you can’t wait to finally go out, surely you must be bored of entertaining me now.” Smiling softly as she looked over at Miles before she sat herself on the sofa, today she was wearing the dark red dress in hopes that she’d see Caspian.